June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Thousands of Brazilians took to the
streets as the national soccer team prepares to meet Uruguay in
the semifinals of the Confederations Cup, reigniting mass
protests that have made officials rush to respond to demands for
better health care and education.

Fifty thousand marched toward the main stadium in Belo
Horizonte, Brazil’s third-largest urban area, the G1 news
website reported, before the match that is part of a dry run for
next year’s World Cup. Police prepared for another 50,000 to
gather in Brasilia, where protesters tried to set fire to the
Foreign Ministry building last week.

President Dilma Rousseff, saying she will listen to the
“voices of the streets,” this week proposed a plebiscite to
give citizens a stronger say in government while vowing to
improve health care and boost education spending. She won
support yesterday from Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim
Barbosa and the head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, for
political reform aimed at quashing corruption that has fueled
the biggest street revolt in two decades.

“All I can hope is that they are peaceful and there are no
clashes with the police,” national team striker Fred told
reporters on the eve of today’s match. “We asked the people to
unite and give only joy for at least 90 minutes of this game.”

Demonstrations began three weeks ago against an increase in
bus fares and have since given voice to discontent over
everything from government corruption to spending on stadiums
for next year’s World Cup. While 40 million people emerged from
poverty over the past decade, accelerating inflation and slow
growth have pushed Rousseff’s approval rating down eight
percentage points since March.

Brazil’s Currency

Brazil’s currency has weakened 6.4 percent this year,
helping lead the Ibovespa stock benchmark to a 27 percent slump
in dollar terms, the second-worst performance among 94 major
indexes.

Calheiros, himself a target of anti-corruption protests,
said yesterday he would suspend a Senate recess until lawmakers
vote on Rousseff’s proposals to quell the protests.

In a late-night session, lower house lawmakers voted 430-9
to scrap a proposal that protesters said would have limited
public prosecutors’ power to investigate corruption. The
constitutional amendment No. 37, as it was known, was a rallying
cry for many of the protesters.

The lower house also approved a bill earmarking oil
royalties for education, in the process modifying Rousseff’s
goal of funneling 100 percent of that revenue to schools.
Instead, 75 percent will go to education and the remainder to
improving health care. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Secret Ballots

Other proposals spawned by the protests and being debated
include a proposal to eliminate bus fares for students and a
constitutional amendment ending the use of secret ballots in
disciplinary votes against fellow lawmakers.

Still, Rousseff had to partially backtrack on her biggest
political gamble, a plebiscite to win support for rewriting part
of the constitution to restructure the political system, amid
claims by the opposition and jurists that such a move is illegal
and unnecessary.

Instead, the government will seek ask voters to endorse
specific actions based on government consultations with
activists, unions and political parties, Education Minister
Aloizio Mercadante said today. Those could include longstanding
proposals to toughen campaign financing laws and a move away
from the current voting system based on party lists toward a
U.S.-styled one based on electoral districts. The government
will send the request for a plebiscite to Congress by July 2,
said Jose Ramos, a presidential spokesman.

More Accountable

“We need to include the people in the debate over
reforms,” Barbosa, the nation’s first black chief justice, said
yesterday after a meeting with Rousseff, in which he endorsed
the president’s call to make politicians more accountable.
“Brazil is tired of reforms by the elites.”

In a Datafolha poll among protesters in Sao Paulo, 30
percent of those interviewed said they would vote for Barbosa in
next year’s presidential election compared to 10 percent for
Rousseff. Barbosa said yesterday he was “flattered” by the
support though has no desire to run for the post.

Seven Helicopters

In Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state,
authorities declared a public holiday and are deploying 5,000
extra security personnel ahead of today’s game, which FIFA chief
Sepp Blatter is expected to attend. Soccer’s governing body said
in a statement that it has “full trust” in the safety and
security plan.

Crowds of protesters have gathered outside stadiums since
the start 11 days ago of what they’ve taken to calling the
“Demonstrations Cup.” In Belo Horizonte, an estimated 10,000
protesters clashed with police during a Mexico-Japan match. More
than 1 million took to the streets on June 20 across Brazil,
with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas. Four people have
died.

Sport was also on the minds today of protesters in Brasilia
in the form of 594 soccer balls -- one for each lawmaker --
lined up in front of Congress to push for goal-scoring reforms.
Police fenced off the presidential palace and installed flood
lights to assist in crowd control ahead of the protests. They’ll
also block traffic and search protesters for explosives and
dangerous objects to prevent attacks on public buildings, said
Daniel Barroso, a police spokesman.

Legitimate Demands

Finance Minister Guido Mantega, in his first public remarks
since last week’s unrest, downplayed the threat posed by the
protesters, whose demands for a better quality of life he said
are legitimate.

“In Brasilia we’re used to street movements, every week
there’s thousands of demonstrators on one issue or another,” he
said in congressional testimony today. “I didn’t see anyone in
the street talking about the economy being out of control.”

Meanwhile, protesters are digging in for a long fight.

“We can’t stop now, we won’t stop,” said Carla Zambelli,
the 32-year-old founder of Nas Ruas, an anti-corruption group
planning a demonstration tomorrow in the northeastern city of
Salvador. “The people showed that the main issues are
corruption and miserable public services. Either the politicians
stop stealing from us, or we’ll shut down Brazil.”